Parks

Here are some places that The Mower Gang has mowed.

This is O’Shea Playground. It has a sweet new and this old-school playgrounds. It also has lots of kids living nearby and acres and acres of open land. We like mowing here.

Here is Tom and some local friends at our community garden. They ate that watermelon right then and there. Yum! Providing healthy foods to local kids is a great byproduct of our urban garden.

Sometimes the grass is really, really tall. 

Tractors lined up in Russell Woods Park

Giving Zussman Park a good mowing.

We didn’t just do wheelies at Comstock Playground we mowed and replaced swings as well. 

We mowed Wigle Memorial Playground as well. It is a big, giant park right smack in the city and it has a shuttered community center there. Crazy.

The tall grass at Viola Liuzzo playground didn’t stand a chance.

Lucas showed up at Gorham Playground.

We mowed O’Shea Playground at night, under a full moon. It was great. We reclaimed a soccer field that was more than waist deep. We also created a giant Maze there in the tall grass. We will maintain the maze for everyone to use. 

We raised some money this year to replace the missing swings on swing sets around the city. Here is our first set at Dorais Playground. We also mowed the 30 inch tall grass. 

Here we are mowing Roosevelt Park. You can see how tall the grass is. Crazy.

We helped the blight busters renovate a park. That is the mower gang’s bobcat after it found a baseball diamond under a bunch of weeds. I wish we had a before and after shot of this because before we started, it looked like a field of weeds and after we scraped it, it was a baseball diamond. Magic.

In 2011 the gang tried our hand at farming. We planted corn, sunflowers, and watermelons in the infield of the Dorais Velodrome. We did it in a downpour. Not ideal planting conditions but we still yielded 70 watermelons. In 2012 we will expand our mechanized farming with some new equipment. 

A weekly mow where we cleaned up the boulevard at Dorais Park. Mowing the edge of the park helps keep the trash-throwing to a minimum. 

We helped with some spring cleaning at the old Tiger Stadium. There is a regular group that takes care of the field (The Navin Field Grounds Crew) but we chipped in for some spring cleanup. Senator Levin stopped by for a photo opportunity, but he didn’t do any actual work. 

Park Survey and Scavenger Hunt – The Gang needed to know what parks needed work, so we dispatched members on a scavenger hunt. We also removed 120 tires from Dorais Playground and then had a bonfire using the trimmed brush and such. It was very cool. Tom’s wife made cupcakes. We drank beers and there were trophies. 

Maze and Labyrinth – On Nov. 6th, 2010 We mowed a Maze and Labyrinth at Rouge Park.

Riverside Park – Grand Blvd. and Fort St. in Detroit. – First Mow – August 28th, 2010

The Dorais Velodrome – Mound Rd. and E. Outer Dr. in Detroit – First Mow – August 6th, 2010

The Mower Gang is Sponsored by Vibrators.com because Tom, the mower gang founder (leader?) owns Vibrators.com.

Craftsman is a big sponsor as well. They donated a bunch of tools and equipment to our group to help us out. 

BulletSafe provides some of our gang members with Bulletproof vests to keep us safe.